With the URL www.dairygoodness.ca, the Dairy Farmers of Canada have crafted a no-frills, healthy brand message that promises natural heartiness. Which is why the following observation may sound odd:

Chocolate milk is not just for fat kids anymore.

This is what the Dairy Farmers of Canada are saying about chocolate milk on their website, www.rechargewithmilk.com. It states that chocolate milk is loaded with both the proteins and carbohydrates your body needs to repair and recharge after strenuous physical activity and drinking some 15 to 30 minutes afterwards can help speed up your recovery.

“Protein is especially important for recovery if you plan to work out again within the next 24 hours,” the site says. “Research shows that a beverage containing both protein and carbohydrates can be more effective at increasing next-workout performance than a carb-only beverage. In fact, those who had both carbs and protein after their workout showed performance gains during their next workout of between 21 per cent and 55 per cent.”

Without a central content regulator, websites can post just about anything and get away with it. The Dairy Farmers, however, have backed up their claims with links to a quintet of studies published in a variety of nutritional journals.

One report, called “Chocolate milk as a post-exercise recovery aid” examined nine male, endurance-trained cyclists who completed an interval workout followed by four hours of recovery and a subsequent endurance trial to exhaustion on three separate days. The subjects drank unmarked containers of chocolate milk, fluid replacement drinks or carbohydrate replacement drinks. The results showed the time to exhaustion and total work were significantly greater among those who consumed chocolate milk and the fluid replacement drink.

“The results of this study suggest that chocolate milk is an effective recovery aid between two exhausting exercise bouts,” wrote Indiana University researchers in the International Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism.

The chocolate milk education continues under the “Protein Power” tab, which details how your body uses carbohydrate stores, called glycogen, in your muscles for energy. As they become depleted, so does your ability to achieve peak performance. The faster glycogens are replenished after you’re finished working out, ideally within half an hour, the better you can perform at your next workout. Protein also aids in the recovery process by repairing damaged muscle tissue and promoting muscle growth.

Melanie Olivier, sport dietician and consultant for the Canadian Olympic Committee, provides a testimonial:

"Chocolate milk is an ideal drink for post-workout recovery. I recommend it to my athletes because it is available everywhere and contains everything necessary for recuperation after a workout—carbohydrates, protein and electrolytes,” she says.

Under each tab on the site, a picture of the kind of athlete for whom chocolate milk would be an ideal post-workout beverage is featured prominently. They include a tennis player, a soccer player, a basketball player, a cyclist, a runner and a hockey player.

The “Recharge With Milk” site also addresses two of chocolate milk’s natural competitors—protein shakes and white milk.

The former, it says, contain many of the essential nutrients needed by your body after strenuous exercise but they’ve got far more protein than most athletes need as part of a balanced diet. There are also more basic reasons in chocolate milk’s favor, including that a 500-milliliter serving costs less than half of a protein shake, there’s no measuring and mixing (and none of those annoying floating globs of powder), and it’s difficult to travel more than a few blocks without passing a grocery store, convenience store, restaurant or fast-food joint that doesn’t have chocolate milk on the shelf or menu.

Of course, the site reminds your inner child that chocolate milk also tastes great.

For example, a 500-milliliter container of chocolate milk has more calories than the same amount of white milk (332 versus 258), but fewer grams of fat (five versus ten). They have roughly the same amount of protein (16 grams versus 17 grams), but chocolate milk has more carbohydrates (55 grams to 24 grams) and more electrolytes (322 milligrams of sodium versus 212 milligrams and 898 milligrams of potassium versus 774 milligrams).

Sports drinks—the beverage of choice among most athletes—have 127 calories, zero grams of fat, zero grams of protein, 32 carbohydrates, 204 milligrams of sodium and 56 milligrams of potassium in a 500-milliliter container.

Energy drinks, which have carved out a significant niche among athletes in recent years, have 235 calories, zero grams of fat, one gram of protein, 57 carbohydrates, 435 milligrams of sodium and 15 milligrams of potassium.

Considering they’re close relatives, the chocolate milk website doesn’t slag white milk so much as position it as a better alternative for people who aren’t as hard core with their exercise. It also points out that white milk doesn’t need to be consumed within a 15- to 30-minute time limit as chocolate milk does in order to provide the benefit. Instead, you can pour yourself a glass “anytime after exercise.”

“If you are a moderate to high-intensity exerciser (such as a runner, hockey player, marathoner or triathlete), you may need the higher levels of carbs found in chocolate milk to replenish muscle glycogen burned during exercise,” the site says under the “Chocolate or White?” tab.

“If you are a lower-intensity exerciser (such as a walker or casual golfer) the additional carbs in chocolate milk may not be needed, since significantly less glycogen is burned during your workout. For you, white milk is a great choice along with a balanced diet.”

So is this brand in line online? Considering the brand is really the Diary Farmers of Canada—yes. The website is hearty, healthy and informative, and hoping to grow a whole new crop of consumers with what many may suspect is a little fertilizer.

Renée Alexander is a freelance business and lifestyle writer based in Winnipeg, Canada.

*Due to the constantly changing environment of websites, some reviews may no longer reflect the current website for this brand.

I just visited the site, because quite frankly the claim seems a little too good to be true.You can't dispute findings from such reputable studies and journals. Also, I do have to admit that I've seen a handful of articles on this over the past several months.Good site. Not loaded with bells and whistles, but it told me everything I needed to really understand why chocolate milk will help after working out. I'm off to the gym in a couple of hours and will try it when I'm done.

Richard McCoy - March 2, 2009

This is a great, simple site. As the web gets more streamlined, it's nice to see sites that just put the info out there without registering, blogging, and dynamic crud. Sure there was a contest, but it's a must to justify the effort. Our firm would have charged about $6K for something this simple...what's the range for an "agency-created" simple site? Does anyone ever talk price here?

This type of stuff rattles our preconceived notions, and I think they've done a good job of delivering a message without over-hyping it. I also respect their restraint in not trying to create a "community" (at least not yet) and just putting real facts online. Can't wait to see how they push awareness out to the public to draw them back to the web site for info.